Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LAST PROMISE OF JESUS CHRIST TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES.

A

SERMON,

DELIVERED AT SPRINGFIELD, MAY 10, 1826,

AT THE

ORDINATION

OF THE

REV. RUFUS

RUFUS ANDERSON,

AS AN EVANGELIST;

AND OF THE

REV. MESSRS. JOSIAH BREWER, ELI
SMITH, CYRUS STONE, AND
JEREMIAH STOW,

TO THE HIGH AND SACRED OFFICE OF

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES.

BY WARREN FAY,

Pastor of the First Church in Charlestown, Mass.

Published by order of the Prudential Committee of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY CROCKER & BREWSTER,
No. 50, CORNhill.

SERMON.

MATTHEW xxviii, 20.

LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN TO THE END Of the world.

THIS promise was made by Jesus Christ to his disciples. It was made in circumstances deeply interesting. He had finished his course of instructions, his labors, and his sufferings. He had died for the sins of the world, and risen, and was about to ascend up to glory. He was now to make provision for evangelising the nations, and for the edification of his church in all ages to the end of time. And he gave the following commission to his disciples, and thus clothed them with the Christian ministry; "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you." And he annexed the precious promise; "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."

This animating promise we believe to have been made to all the faithful ministers of the gospel, and missionaries of the cross, to the end of tim For if the promise annexed to the commission given to the

primitive disciples ceased with the Jewish dispensation, then did the commission also expire with it.But this would prove too much;-for this is the broad commission,under which the professed ministers of the gospel universally claim their authority to preach, and to administer baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

[ocr errors]

Though the commission and the promise were addressed, as they fell from the lips of the Saviour, directly to the eleven disciples, yet they were addressed through them to Christian ministers and missionaries in all coming ages. This was the method in which the great Head of the Church instituted the sacramental supper. He said to his disciples, "This do in remembrance of me." But who will say the Lord's supper was to be celebrated only by the disciples, to whom he spake, or only in that age? He meant unquestionably to bind the church to the observance of the supper to the end of time. "Jesus said to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." But who will say he meant to inculcate self-denial on his disciples only?Again Jesus said to his disciples, "If thy hand, or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee." But who will say this injunction was binding only on those to whom he spake? He likewise said to his disciples, "If thy brother trespass against thee, go tell him his fault between thee and him alone." And has not this justly been considered a law in the kingdom of Jesus Christ from that day to this; and a standing law to the end of the world? All these precepts were addressed to the very same persons, to whom the prom

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »